"I
JAILED
ALUSHKIN." PENZA SECURITY AGENTS THINK THEY HAVE CARTE BLANCHE
FOR
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
Jehovah's
Witnesses
in Russia, 13 January 2020
On 27
December 2019,
in Penza, law enforcement officers arrested two women on the
pretense of
seeking fraudsters. As it turned out later, the real reason for
the arrest was
religious convictions. One of the security agents bragged that
"I jailed
Alushkin."
Two
friends, aged 26
and 29 years, visited a local resident who the day before had
invited them to
converse about the Bible. Practically immediately behind the
believers two
police officers entered the lobby. Major Valery Kulikov declared
that the women
allegedly fit the description of a fraudster being sought and
forced them to
follow him to the police department. As it turned out, there
were no specific
descriptions of the believers and the police picked them out at
random, but the
description and appearance of the detainees did not match the
description.
The
women were not
charged with any crime and without evident grounds they were
taken to another
department where the security officers continued the
interrogation. The
detainees were searched and cell phones were taken. The officers
tried by
deceit and intimidation to take fingerprints. At the same time
the believers
were threatened and psychological pressure was applied to them.
During the
interrogation, one of the women became ill.
The
police officers inquired
about the detainees' religious convictions, asking whether they
needed help in
order "to get out of the sect."
Law
enforcement
agents were especially interested in whether the women were
acquainted with
Vladimir Alushkin, who was sentenced to six years for professing
his faith, on
13 December 2019.
A
security officer
named Bykov, who introduced himself as an "investigator for
extremism
cases," stated that the women did not need to share their faith
with
others. He said that now security officers have to decide "what
kind of
case to open, a criminal one on extremism or an administrative
one on
missionary activity." After the interrogation, the women were
released.
The
incidents
described happened just two weeks after the sentencing by the
Lenin district
court of Penza of six citizens whose faith the security officers
did not like.
Besides Vladimir Alushkin, his wife, Tatiana, and also Galia
Olkhova, Denis
Timoshin, Andrei Magliv, and Vladimir Kuliasov were convicted on
the extremism
article. Alushkin's wife and his four acquaintances received two
years
probation each. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 January 2020)
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